Toor Dal
February 16th, 2007 filed under Dal (Lentils)
Indian recipes uses several different dals (lentils) witch are more native to India. Toor dal, also known as Arhar, is a popular dish in almost every household.
Below, I describe 2 different chaunk variations, one with added vegetables and another just with ghee (clarified butter).
Serves 2 to 4.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup toor dal
- 4 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (haldi)
- 1 tablespoon fine chopped ginger
- 1 teaspoon mango powder (amchoor)
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
Vegetable Chaunk version:
- 2 tablespoons clear butter (ghee)
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed (jeera)
- 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seed (rai)
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder (lal mirch)
- 2 bay leaves (tajpat)
- Pinch of asafetida (hing)
- 1 medium size chopped tomato
- 1 small zucchini chopped into 1 inch long cubes
- 6 string beans chopped about 1 inch long
Ghee Chaunk version:
- 2 tablespoons clear butter (ghee)
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed (jeera)
- 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seed (rai)
- 2 bay leaves (tajpat)
- Pinch of asafetida (hing)
- 4 whole red chili (sabut lal mirch)
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
Method:
- Wash dal, changing water several times until the water appears clear.
- Soak dal in 4 cups of water for 30 minutes or longer.
- In pressure cooker add dal, water, salt, turmeric and ginger, and cook on medium high heat.
- As the pressure cooker starts steaming turn the heat down to medium and cook for about 7 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and wait until steam has stopped before opening the pressure cooker.
- Mix dal well so there are no lumps. If dal is thick add more boiling water and make the consistency as you desire.
- Mix the mango powder and garam masala with a few spoons of water and add the mixture to the dal.
For vegetable chaunk:
- Heat the oil in a saucepan. Test the heat by adding one cumin seed to the oil; if it cracks right away oil is ready. Add hing, cumin seeds, mustard seeds.
- After seeds crack add bay leaves and chili powder, stir for few seconds and add the vegetables.
- Stir the vegetables and cook for 4 to 5 minutes till the vegetables are tender.
- Add vegetable to dal and mix gently.
Ghee chaunk:
Heat the oil in a saucepan. Test the heat by adding one cumin seed to the oil; if it cracks right away oil is ready.
Add hing, cumin seeds, mustard seeds. After seeds crack stir for few seconds and add bay leaves, whole red chili and paprika.
Stir for a second and add 1 tablespoon of water so mixture does not burn.
Pour th spice mix over dal.
Serve with steamed rice or any Indian bread.
wow….finally the recipe for this dal….my friend from work and family are gujarati. The mom would make me this dal and yes it was super spicy but so very good. I tried to ask her for the recipe but of course her English wasn’t that well plus we lived on opposites sides of town so i couldn’t watch. Now because of you Manjula I can learn. Thank you so much! I think I was Indian in a past life or something!
You can cook this without a pressure cooker, it will just take more time. Cook it on medium-low heat with a lid on. Check it periodically to make sure it doesn’t cook dry. You may need to add some water towards the end of cooking if it becomes thick.
If the dal has been pre-soaked for about 4 hours, the cooking will take about 30 to 45 minutes without a pressure cooker.
Dear Manjula:
Your dal recipes all seem to require a pressure cooker. Howw do we cook it if we don;t have one? Is there a slow cook way?
Thanks.
Jaya–Thanks! Good to know!
Cheers,
Annette
can you please
show us how to make moong ki dal? Pretty please
Hi Annette,
Toor dal is sold as dry or oily. You will probably never find a recipe that will specify one over the other because it doesn’t matter. I personally buy the dry version.
Oily dal can sometimes be of lesser quality than dry. I would suggest you discard the oily dal if it’s been so many years since you bought it. Another reason the oily dal recipe didn’t taste good could be that the dal itself was not of good quality. I’m just guessing, but it’s possible.
Jaya
I made the veggie chaunk version, and it wasn’t just very tasty, but also smelled lovely–very aromatic. Thanks for another great recipe!
By the way, although I used dry toor dal for this, I’ve always wondered whether it’s worthwhile to look for a good recipe for *oily* toor dal? Years ago, I bought it and made a recipe with it, but it came out pretty badly… If there’s something great that can be done with it, I’d be curious to know.
hello aunty,
Gr8 recipes. LOTS OF THANKS .
Hi Manjuala aunty,
i am enjoying your recipies very much. I made almost all of them. I am from Punjab, India and i am a vegetarian. Please bring more vegetarian recipies. Thank you so much and keep up the good work!
Thank you Manjula for a great venue for vegetarian food. Being a vegetarian all my life I am always looking for different recipes. I even have my children cooking following your you tube lessons. Bravo, well done. Could you kindly put nutrtional information for each recipe?
Sincerely
Chandar